MANILA -- It’s hard to believe that Ramen Nagi has been in the country for 10 years. It seems only yesterday when premium ramen shops were few and far between.

Ramen Nagi founder Satoshi Ikuta still embodies that rebellious spirit that got him his first official spot at the Tachikawa Ramen Square in Tokyo. It was his ramen that Erickson and Roxanne Farillas, the husband and wife co-founders of Ramen Nagi Philippines, found themselves lining up for hours at the branch in Central in Hong Kong.

According to Roxanne, her husband fell in love with that bowl of ramen. And they felt that the need to bring Ramen Nagi’s authentic ramen to Filipinos.

I have vivid memories of lining up at the first branch at the top floor of SM Aura, with the apprehension of spending P300++ on a bowl of ramen, which was unheard of in those days. The Butao ramen -- milky tonkotsu broth with the heat from miso-chili powder with extra firm noodles -- became a personal benchmark for the premium ramen shops to follow.

From their count, Ramen Nagi has served over 10 million bowls of ramen over the past 10 years spread over 37 branches around Metro Manila and Luzon with plans to expand to the Visayas and Mindanao soon. The Philippines is such an important part of the Ramen Nagi business that Japanese chefs fly in monthly to make sure the quality is up to par. They have even expanded the Nagi brand to include Nagi Izakaya akin to a Japanese neighborhood bar, and the recently opened Nagi Sushi where sushi is served alongside.

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While they the only have four core kings on their menu, they keep on getting ramen fans to come back for their Limited Kings like the Manila Kings, mashup of Japanese and Filipino flavors like Binagoongan, Kare-Kare, and Caldereta Ramen that were created in collaboration with Chef Satoshi and his team.

For the 10th year anniversary celebration, Ramen Nagi has released very special Limited Kings that were available for a very limited time at select branches. The No. 11 Jiro Ramen, the Antcicada with crickets, and the fish forward Inosho Tsukemen and Spicy Inosho.

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For the last of the 10th anniversary Limited Kings, Satoshi Ikuta personally flew in to prepare the Wagyu King.

If you ask me, the Wagyu King is what happens if you tell a Japanese chef to go crazy and cook up beef stew with no expense spared. I took a moment to admire the fat glistening off the slices of beef and the broth before diving in.

The A4 Wagyu beef specially flown in from Miyagi prefecture in Eastern Japan for the 300 bowls of ramen is really the star of the bowl with Chef Ikuta allowing the fat and flavor to totally take over the broth with some green onion, bamboo shoots and enoki mushrooms for texture. The beef is so tender that I didn’t even have to chew it as it just melted in my mouth.

The noodles used in the Wagyu King were different from their usual thin round noodles too. Instead, wider flatter noodles were in the bowl perhaps to better absorb the robust full-bodied broth. The Wagyu King is a very different, but totally deserving, bowl to serve as the grand finale of the Ramen Nagi’s 10th anniversary Limited Kings.

If you want a bowl, they will only be serving this on December 13 and 14 at the Ramen Nagi branch that started it all atop SM Aura. Only 150 bowls a day will be served at P1,010 each.